LONDON – The Financial Services Authority (FSA), Britain’s financial regulator, has set out its proposals for a tough new liquidity regime that it plans to introduce for banks, investment firms and building societies next autumn. Proposals, published in a consultation paper* in early December, include a new Individual Liquidity Adequacy Standards approach to assessing and mitigating liquidity risk, a strengthened qualitative framework for liquidity risk management, and new liquidity reporting requirements.

GENEVA, Switzerland – Banks could face very severe controls indeed in the wake of the global financial crisis unless they can convince the voting public that they’re capable of executing their business responsibly, a top UK regulator said in early December.

BRUSSELS – Dangerous weaknesses have been exposed in the EU’s structure of financial oversight by the global financial crisis. And, the way to overcome these weaknesses is by creating a European System of Financial Supervisors (ESFS), says a report published at the beginning of December by an independent Brussels think-tank.

GENEVA, Switzerland – Differences in the services provided by banks and insurers must in future be reflected in different regulation and capital requirements for both industries, according to a leading insurance industry representative.

BASEL, Switzerland – Global banking regulators, responding to the valuation problems thrown up by the global financial crisis, have issued fresh guidance on using controversial fair value accounting for financial instruments, and stressed the importance of sound audit quality in enhancing market confidence in times of severe market stress.

HONG KONG – HK\'s regulators continue to see long-term potential in Islamic finance despite the current global financial crisis, a top supervisor said in late November.

LONDON – Europe’s insurers welcomed the long-awaited reforms of reinsurance regulation adopted by America’s state insurance regulators in December, but warned implementation of the reforms could take years and is likely to require federal legislation.

The consensus is for ‘no change’ in fair value accounting as US stock market regulators prepare to pronounce judgment

For many financial institutions, investments marked-to-market through earnings on a quarterly basis represent a minority of their total investment portfolio, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman Christopher Cox said in an early-December summary of the preliminary findings of the SEC’s review of fair value, or mark-to-market, accounting.

Securities regulators publish their roadmap for adopting IFRS. Firms query costs and complexity of switching amid crisis